According to court testimony, a father was charged with second-degree murder after allegedly attacking Lawrence V Scully, a convicted pedophile who he suspected was stalking his daughter, with a shovel and moose antlers.
Levi Axtell, 27, was arrested and charged with the victim’s death after he was discovered dead in his home.
According to the Metro, Axtell was worried about Scully, who had been convicted of sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl in 1979, and feared for the safety of his own daughter.
According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, he accused Scully of parking his van outside his child’s nursery in Grand Marais, Minnesota, in 2018. He requested a restraining order, which was granted but then dismissed a few weeks later.
Axtell arrived at the sheriff’s office with blood on his person and informed the authorities that he had killed Scully with a shovel, according to a hearing. He admitted to striking Scully with the large tool 15 to 20 times before finishing the assault with a large moose antler.
Following an investigation, police discovered the deceased convicted pedophile, who had been released from prison in 1982, in his home, with severe head injuries consistent with the attack.
Despite previous allegations of harassment leveled against him shortly before his death, an investigation yielded no significant results.
According to The Mail, Axtell requested a restraining order in 2018 after his child was stalked. According to his statement, «the respondent waits for the victim to go on walks from daycare and tries to talk to her… He’s been there before, stalking children in his van.
«I saw him park right next to the school.» He is a convicted paedophile, and stalking and grooming my daughter is completely inappropriate and must cease.»
Judge Michael Cuzzo granted Axtell’s request for a temporary order of protection, prohibiting Scully from approaching within six blocks of Axtell’s home. The judge, however, denied the permanent order, stating that the allegations were unsubstantiated.
Last Saturday, a woman believed to be Axtell’s sister stated that the family had received significant support from the local community and that they planned to set up an online fundraiser. Katrina Axtell expressed her gratitude in a Facebook post for the outpouring of support she received online in the aftermath of last Wednesday’s tragedy.
Axtell is being held in Cook County and is scheduled to appear in court on April 10. Dennis Shaw, his defense attorney, stated that Axtell had no significant criminal record prior to this incident and was deemed a low flight risk. His bail, however, was set at $1 million (£830,640).
